August 22, 2009

LAST week, if you wanted to use the latest slang to tell a friend he was cool, you could have called him “Obama,” as in: “Dude, you’re rocking the new Pre phone? You are so Obama.”

This week? Best not to risk it.

Yeesh. If you risked it before, go ahead: risk it! You seem pretty un-risk-averse. Chez Althouse, we've been thinking it's amusing to say, whenever anything's not quite right: Why did Obama let that happen? Or just — with a tone of sad disappointment: Obama.

But anyway, "Obama" as an adjective for cool/hip? The point is that it didn't last:

The life of slang is now shorter than ever, say linguists, and what was once a reliable code for identifying members of an in-group or subculture is losing some of its magic.

The Internet “is robbing slang of a lot of its sociolinguistic exclusionary power,” said Robert A. Leonard, a linguistics professor at Hofstra in Hempstead, N.Y., whose slang credentials include being a founding member of the doo-wop group Sha Na Na, formed in the late 1960s. “If you are in a real inside group, you are manufacturing slang so that you can exclude the wannabes.”

And that becomes harder, he added, as the whole world has access to your language.

... whose slang credentials include being a founding member of the doo-wop group Sha Na Na... Ha ha. I like to think his linguistics scholarship focuses on the meaning of nonsense syllables in doo wop songs. (Because, really, WHO put the bomp?)

Nowadays, everyone can check Urban Dictionary. The exclusionary game is up.

No real definition for this word is possible at this time. Check back in 4 years by then a consensus by have formed. Each person projects his personal beliefs and values onto this word, and a standard meaning isn't possible at this time.

Hey, did it suddenly become hip and cool to be all clear-headed and rational?!

I saw Robert Leonard on "Forensic Files" or one of the shows similar to it. He was an expert witness involved in a case where someone (I think maybe a woman's husband) faked harrassment notes and he analyzed the writing to figure out who the real author was. Anyway, apparently he knows his stuff. Of course, they also couldn't not mention that he was a former member of Sha Na Na.

I think that was a very self-absorbed definition of what is or isn't "cool." Nothing lasts only a week, because it takes longer than that to gain acceptance over a large geographical area. I never met anyone using such a term, nor did I see or hear it in the media or even the internet. Seems to me that it was only used by this guy's friends.

I have a friend who is half Kenyan and half white American - I could say that to him, but he would punch me, and he is a large man, so I won't even consider saying it, except in jest. He thinks Obama is from a crummy tribe, anyway...

Oh my Gods! You know what these really cool people are doing, Ann??? It's this totally new thing and I think it began on 4chan and now it's FTW and you know what it is???

It's called "Agreeing to Disagree".

Really I want to tell you a little about it because it's so totally amazing and it's really the pinnacle of ten thousand years of human history.

Here let me explain a little:

You have an opinion. In the normal way, if I don't like your opinion I will try best I can to demonize you in my writing and tell all about how god-awful you are and how you constantly spurt out "extremist" opinions in a totally "extremist" voice. If that doesn't work, I'll try to get my friends to gang up on you too and maybe get a Senator to call you a "political terrorist" or perhaps organize a boycott of your business because your intentions in putting forth your radical opinions were so awfully evil.

But that's the old way. In the new way, I tell you what I think and what my reasons are. If you are still not convinced, I let it be and we AGREE TO DISAGREE.

That's like so totally hip that I think George Clinton is going to make a song about it. You can be a super-hipster too, Ann. Try it.

I think one fun one would be someone who comes in claiming he's going to change everything but he hasn't thought out the logistics, and ends up getting nothing at all accomplished, and ends up on the street, talking to himself.

1. It might be funny to see if those who adopted "Hussein" as a name are still using it.

2. It would be very helpful if someone could compile the most obsequious statements made about BHO by Beltway hacks, and then come up with a Top 100 list. That could be held against them in the coming months and years.

Actually, there's a lot of umplummed depth here. Obama was a phenomenon for a certain segment of the population in the same way that New Kids on the Block were, or that break dancing was. For a fleeting period, he was all the rage. The fact that this is politics makes it that much harder for advocates to move along, but the psychology is the same.

OK, so here are claims from earlier this year that it was "cool/hip" to call someone Obama (well, Barrack). I also heard NPR interview 1 guy at this Albany high school where this was going on:

...And speaking of basketball, who missed the sight of POTUS dressed in all black, sitting courtside at a Bulls-Wizards game with a cup of beer and high-fiving a trash-talking fan? How hip was that?!

It’s so hip that school kids in Albany, N.Y., coined a term for it: “Baracking.” And it doesn’t stop there. Those in the know at Albany High greet each other by saying: “What’s up, my Obama?” and they respond to a sneeze with “Barack you.” Misbehavior is peer-corrected with the admonition, “Barack’s in the White House,” which translates, “Show some respect.”

More in this hard-to-take vein here: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0409/21522.html#ixzz0OxOkU0bb

I was walking down the street today (in Marin County) and saw an aging hipster, age 60 or so, wearing leather pants and a red che tshirt. Now I know what I should have said to him. "dude. Now that is Obama. DUDE!".

I'm an old fat white guy, and even I can tell that your Obama is fake. I know the old lady has a serious power and money jones, but you don't. You just want to be liked. You can't do this job. You know that. You'll go down in flames on Health Care and Cap 'n Tax, and that a good thing. Your nest is feathered. Michelle will get over it. Go home Mr. President. I know you want to. Eat your waffles in peace. Sure Billy Ayres is a terrorist, but he might be entertaining, and you can choose a church that doesn't show you up as a racist idiot.

In our house we tired of acronyms but wanted something less crass than the full words for BS. So we now just say, "That's total Pelosi!" or "Have you ever heard such Pelosi?" Our kids use it during times of parental overreach, and we all use the term whenever Robert Gibbs is working.